Eternity Centre Kerang

06/09/2026

Confessions for Life; I Have the Mind of Christ
David W Palmer

(1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV) … We have the mind of Christ.

When I first discovered this Scripture phrase, it answered so many questions I had as a new Christian about relating to God and hearing his voice. I knew it was possible to hear from God and that it was possible to be led by him, but I didn’t know how; I didn’t know the mechanism. I wanted to be sure I was hearing from God and following him; but at the time, the instructions for how to do this were either misleading or missing all together.

People said to listen for his voice, but I was unsure of what was just “me,” what was coming from his Spirit, or what was coming from my spirit. I didn’t want to be led astray by my own thoughts—deluded into thinking God was guiding me when it was just me having a good idea.

I listened closely to a friend recounting all the wisdom and insights that he claimed God said to him. But after many very long conversations of mainly him telling me his stories, I picked up some contradictions in what he claimed God said. I wasn’t critical of this wonderful young man doing his best to follow God, but I did realize that hearing from and following His leading was thwarted with traps. So, I sought God’s wisdom on this in prayer and his word.

First, when trying to decipher the difference between hearing God’s Spirit and my spirit, I discovered this amazingly comforting passage, which was a huge relief and helped still the storm of confusion around this topic:

(1 Corinthians 6:17 NKJV) But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Instantly, I knew I had received a revelation from God; it was one piece of this puzzle coming into place. If I am born again and have cleansed my spirit from filthiness, I have become “one spirit” with him; our spirits have merged. Wow, this took away a lot of the uncertainty over what was coming from my spirit as opposed to what was coming from his. We are one spirit with him. That means that in many cases, the inner witness of my spirit should be the same as his. Provided, that is, that I take up my responsibilities for my spirit as he instructs:

(2 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV) Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

(James 4:8 NKJV) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

So, as well as purifying what is in my heart and cleansing it from all filthiness, God’s wisdom instructs us to guard it from any impurity coming in. Instead, he wants us to allow in copious amounts of his word through our eyes and ears and by meditating in it day and night:

(Proverbs 4:20–23 NKJV) My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. {21} Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; {22} For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. {23} Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

So, with this revealing light from God’s word, I was on the way to understanding how to walk in the spirit and be led by the spirit:

(Galatians 5:16, 18, 25 NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ... {18} But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ... {25} If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27 KJV). Expanding and explaining this, the Holy Spirit through Paul said that we should “walk in the spirit” and “be led by the spirit.” God led me to the conclusion that these are both referring to the same thing; they are simply two sides of the same coin; walking in the spirit is the same as hearing the Good Shepherd’s voice and following him.

The Holy Spirit had led me so far, and he had given me great progress in understanding how to be led by God. But not all the pieces of this puzzle had come together for me yet. What about times when I simply don’t know what to do? In other words, what do I do when I’m not clear on God’s guidance, even if I am sincerely seeking him—having purified my heart, cleansed my spirit, and been feeding my inner man on God’s word? I needed more wisdom on how this is supposed to work. The Holy Spirit reminded me of something he said in the Old Testament and then repeated three times in the New: “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4, Rom. 1:7, Gal. 3:11, Heb. 10:38 KJV). This is certainly a key verse in the New Testament.

So, to walk in the spirit, to be led by the spirit, and to follow the Good Shepherd’s voice, I needed to walk by faith. I was beginning to understand. I already had some basic understanding of faith and how it works. This informed me that I needed some passages from God’s word that confirm that God is leading me, and then to stand on them by faith. The following passages are what I discovered; they have greatly helped me stay peaceful and stay in faith that God was guiding me—even when I couldn’t see him, feel him, or even know what he was doing. I simply trusted him and employed his law of confession on the following verses; he did the rest and supernaturally got me to where he needed me to be:

(Romans 10:9–10 NKJV) if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

(Psalm 37:23 NKJV) The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

(John 10:27 NKJV) “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

(1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV) … We have the mind of Christ.

From these and other Scriptures, I developed some confessions that I have stood on constantly since God revealed these things to me four decades ago. This has renewed my mind to the truth that God is guiding me—whether he tells me what to do or not. Even if he doesn’t say where to go and when, he has the ability to get me to where he needs me. If he has to tell me something, he will. Otherwise, he simply guides me by his Spirit, sets up circumstances, speaks through leaders, and even governments at times (Like how God got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus). God simply can get me to where he needs me to be; he can even direct decisions, and simply be my Lord … by faith … without always having to tell my intellect.

God really is that good and capable; my challenge as always is to renew my mind to the truth that I am already—in the new birth—one Spirit with the Lord, have the mind of Christ, and am hearing the voice of the good shepherd. Why? Because Jesus said I am hearing his voice; so I simply believe that he is speaking to me … In my spirit.

Here are some of the confessions I use in this area. As I said, they have kept me in peace and confident that God is guiding me, even when I don’t seem to know intellectually what step to take next. This is a walk of faith; employing the law of confession is at the heart of living by faith:

“Jesus is Lord; he is my Lord; I have a Lord and he is in control of my life.”
“The Lord is my shepherd, I hear his voice, and I follow him.”
“I have the mind of Christ.”
“I am one spirit with the Lord.”
“My steps are ordered by the Lord.”

To cap it all off, I simply say: “God is guiding me.” I say this when in the crisis of not knowing what to do. I speak it by faith, when my mind and my flesh are screaming in peace-stealing turbulence that I do not know what to do. I confess it in faith believing that it will lead to him showing me his will, or better still, that he will simply guide me without informing my intellect.

After all, if God simply informed my intellect and relied on my will-power to get me to the centre of his will, this would simply be replacing the failed written legalism of the Old Testament with a verbal legalism. It simply wouldn’t work. It’s better—much better—that he guides me by his Spirit, and we both leave my intellect and will power out of it as much as possible. Faith and confession in the truth that Jesus is Lord, he is my Shepherd, and that he guides me and gets me to where he needs me to be is without doubt the superior and new covenant way of operating.

Tomorrow, I will give some testimony of how Rosanna and I proved these things out in our lives. But for today, take to heart this truth:

(Philippians 2:11 NKJV) … every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Acts 17:28 NKJV) “for in Him we live and move and have our being. …”

05/09/2026

"Power to Step Up" | Eternity Online Church Program
Pastors David & Rosanna Palmer
Praise & Worship
Prayer for Healing

CREATIVE MESSAGE: "Stepping Out" | Rosanna Palmer
Encouraging, faith-filled message from Rosanna, including excerpts from original songs:
Taking the Challenge,
Jesus Delivered Me from the Storm,
You Light My Path Lord,

SERMON:
"You Have Power to Direct Your Life" | David W Palmer (2026)

(Proverbs 18:21 NKJV) Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

(Mark 11:23 NKJV) “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

(James 3:2–8 NKJV) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. {3} Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. {4} Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. {5} Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! {6} And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. {7} For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. {8} But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Jesus, Lord, Father, God, Holy Spirit, encouragement, faith, Rosanna and Dave, Rosanna's Raiders, motivation, motivational, grace, empowering, overcome, vision, dream, fulfilment, turmoil, peace, trust, freedom, life, abundance, fear, victory over fear, perseverance, vision, tenacity, courage, finishing well, Praise, worship, salvation, healing, prayer, prayer for healing,

05/09/2026

"Stepping Out" | Rosanna Palmer, Creative (2026)
Encouraging, faith-filled message from Rosanna, including excerpts from original songs:
Taking the Challenge,
Jesus Delivered Me from the Storm,
You Light My Path Lord,

Jesus, Lord, Father, God, Holy Spirit, encouragement, faith, Rosanna and Dave, Rosanna's Raiders, motivation, motivational, grace, empowering, overcome, vision, dream, fulfilment, turmoil, peace, trust, freedom, life, abundance, fear, victory over fear, perseverance, vision, tenacity, courage, finishing well,

05/09/2026

"You Have Power to Direct Your Life" | David W Palmer (2026)

(Proverbs 18:21 NKJV) Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.

(Mark 11:23 NKJV) “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

(James 3:2–8 NKJV) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. {3} Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. {4} Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. {5} Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! {6} And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. {7} For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. {8} But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Jesus, Lord, Father, God, Holy Spirit, words, confession, salvation, born again, sinners prayer, new creation, encouragement, teaching, truth, living word, empowerment, perseverance, exhortation, peace, obedience, hope, healing, tongue, words, horse, ship, rudder, bridle, bit,

04/09/2026

Confessions for Life; The Righteousness of Faith
David W Palmer

(Romans 4:13 NKJV) For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Through the apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit speaks of “the righteousness of faith.” Then, in the lead up to his explanation of how to receive salvation and Jesus’s new birth, he mentions it again:

(Romans 10:6–9 NKJV) But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) {7} or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). {8} But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): {9} that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

From this passage, we see that our all-important salvation is dependent on confession: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. …” Furthermore, he says that our words of spoken confession need to come from faith in the heart: “believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.”

In this series of devotional studies, we have seen several times Jesus’s statements emphasising that the words that are creative, effective, living, and powerful are the ones that overflow through our mouths from fully assured faith in our hearts:

(Matthew 12:34–35 DKJV) “You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of that which fills [and overflows from] the heart the mouth speaks. (35) A good man, out of the good treasure [collected in and overflowing from his heart], sends out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure sends out evil things.”

Overflowing words from faith in the heart are creative or destructive—depending on whose words you have put your trust in. If they come from God’s word, planted in the heart and harvested through overflow—he will watch over them to perform them. If they come from doubt, unbelief, or the devil’s planted seeds, they will be watched over by him; and he will use them for his destructive, life-stealing purposes. Jesus, the Living word, put it like this:

(John 10:10 NKJV) “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

The faith we need in our hearts comes by hearing God’s words in our hearts (Rom. 10:17). And this is exactly how we receive the faith we need for salvation and to walk in the “righteousness of faith”:

(Romans 10:13–17 NKJV) For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” {14} How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ... {17} So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The Holy Spirit clearly says that salvation—the righteousness of faith—is received when the faith that comes by hearing from God is expressed in confession of his words from the overflow of the believing heart. If you have received Jesus’s new birth, this is how it happened. According to these verses, we simply cannot receive salvation without confessing that Jesus is Lord.

We saw yesterday that the only ones who will not wholeheartedly confess that Jesus is Lord are of a different spirit; they are not saved; they do not belong to God. The only—and I gratefully repeat only—way we can receive salvation and be right with God is through the righteousness of faith. Without faith, pleasing God is simply not possible:

(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Once having received the new birth, we then become disciples, learners, and apprentices to Jesus and his ways. We have much to learn and to digest from his word. As we read, hear, and swallow his words, this renews our minds and gets established in our hearts. From what we plant and grow there, a whole raft of new confessions spring forth—words we speak that are the same words as what he says.

Today, we begin by looking at some of the words that we need to confess about ourselves—the reality of who we are now through our union with Jesus. These are in-Christ realities; they are mind-renewing statements of who God has recreated us to be in our new birth and covenant with him. Let’s begin with the truth that in Christ, God has made us the righteousness of God:

(2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ... {21} For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I encourage you to confess these passages, and then make from them a mind renewing confession to apply them personally: “I am a new creation; I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”

This concept is staggeringly challenging to believe. Having been born again from a life of guilt and shame, in which we lived under the condemning accusations of the enemy and his kingdom, we have much mind renewing to do to fully believe that we are now the righteousness of God. Because, when we think deeply about what “righteousness” means, we can initially find it very difficult to swallow and to believe that it applies to us, let alone apply its implications:

(Ephesians 3:12 NKJV) in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

(Proverbs 28:1 NKJV) The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.

Here, the Holy Spirit is speaking of our access to Father God. He says that in Jesus our Lord, we have this access—not merely as observers, visitors, or menials—but with “boldness” and with “confidence.” Having been born again, you are God the Father’s very own child. You access him with the right standing of his Son. This is both astounding and completely freeing.

“The righteousness of God,” means that in Christ, you now have the very same righteousness as Jesus and the Father have themselves. But let’s not get proud about this; he has credited this righteousness to us—not through anything we have done or deserve—but simply by Jesus’s achievement and our covenant with him. But it is real, and he wants us to operate in this amazing privilege:

(Hebrews 6:19–20 NLT) This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary. {20} Jesus has already gone in there for us. …

Jesus has opened this access, confidence, and boldness for us. Being the righteousness of God in Him means that we have as much right to be there as he does. I know this sounds extremely difficult to believe and swallow, but that is how good God is; and that is what Jesus suffered and died to achieve for us. He made us his children through being born into his family, and he gave us the family privilege of being right in Father’s eyes and always welcomed unreservedly at his “throne,” “inner sanctuary,” or “secret place.”

(Hebrews 4:16 NKJV) Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

(Psalm 91:1 NKJV) He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Today, I encourage you to begin confessing, “Jesus is Lord,” if you haven’t yet, or continue making that confession if you are already born again. Plus, add to it the confession of 2 Cor. 5:17, 21 (written above) and the application of it to your own life:

“I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”

Add to it …

“In Jesus, I have access with boldness and confidence.”
“In Christ, I come boldly to the throne of grace, enter within the veil, and abide in the secret place of the Most High.”

Remember, renewing your mind from the way it has been trained will take some time. Think of it as planting God’s word seeds in your heart. Keep at these confessions of God’s word and in your meditation on them until they come to harvest. Persist in saying them quietly to yourself until the growing faith in your heart leaps out of your mouth in creative, bold, confident exclamations of faith-filled words that affirm the truth written in the Bible.

During this growth period, your confidence to draw near to God, and your peace when you do so, will grow. At the throne, inner sanctuary, and secret place await love, acceptance, encouragement, answers to prayer, insights, wisdom, overflowing life, and joy:

(Psalm 16:11 NKJV) In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

When your faith pleases God, you will experience the “pleasures” at his right hand.

03/09/2026

03/09/2026

Testing Hypocrites and Pseudo Confessions
David W Palmer

(Matthew 15:7–8 NLT) “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, {8} ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

Our wonderful Lord Jesus acknowledges that the tongue can be deceptive. It can speak lying words to deceitfully hide what is really in the heart. These words do not come from the overflow of what is treasured inwardly; they are conjured up in a demonically inspired intellect, and then they are spoken under the power of the will, not heart overflow. The father of lies begets them, and he designs them to deceive.

For example, when Rosanna and I were pastoring a very contemporary youth-style church in Sunshine near Melbourne, a man came in claiming to be a Christian. We welcomed him, as we do with all who are interested in God. However, he kept bragging to people that he was a high level freemason, and various other self-aggrandising and manipulative claims.

My first impression was that this was obviously all lies. I believed that his need to “embellish his importance to have impact on others” would fall away from his life as he grew in Jesus. I felt that his “big-talking lies” were so obvious that no one would believe him; but they did. One young woman in particular was so intimidated by him and his grandiose claims of self-importance and power that she stopped coming to church. I knew then that I had to deal with this pretend Christian, but how?

In prayerful consultation with the Holy Spirit, I knew that whatever I did had to be done in love and to reflect the Good Shepherd’s heart; after all, it is his church, and he is the one true shepherd of the whole flock. So, how should I handle this man who desperately needed Jesus, but who was also speaking poison to the life of Jesus’s church. His “lips” said he was a Christian that honoured Jesus, but was his heart “far from” him? What was really in his heart? What spirit was operating through him—God’s Spirit or some other spirit? The Holy Spirit reminded me of the following passage:

(1 John 4:1–3 NKJV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. {2} By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, {3} and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Through his word, the Holy Spirit was simply telling me not to believe the man that said he was a Christian and a high level freemason at the same time: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits.” But how was I to test him? Then the Holy Spirit led me to this corresponding passage:

(1 Corinthians 12:3 NKJV) Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

This fits with the following passage that shows a genuine Christian:

(Romans 10:9 NKJV) That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

From these passages, I knew that I had to “test the spirit” that was operating in and through the man. I also knew that if it was the Holy Spirit, he would have no problem confessing that Jesus is his Lord; without this confession, I would clearly be able to see that he was not a genuine Christian—as he would need to confess that to be saved. I had also learned by experience that if I simply had a quiet chat with him, asked him the question privately, his original lie could easily be conjured out of his intellect again and spoken deceptively. I needed a way of testing what was in his heart; I had to get him to speak from the overflow of his heart’s treasure, not giving him the opportunity to speak lying words that could come from a deceived intellect.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit gave me a very simple strategy for testing his spirit; by God’s wisdom, this could be done in love, and it could show the whole church clearly if the man in question was a genuine Christian believer in Jesus or not.

When I was about half way through my sermon that night, I casually walked over to where he was sitting in the front row. Suddenly, I put the microphone in his face and said, “Declare to us who your Lord and Saviour is.” Under this sudden and public pressure, I knew he wouldn’t have time to intellectually inject a lie into his mouth; what was truly in his heart would burst forth. He sat there speechless—unable to utter a sound.

Meanwhile, the congregation were looking questioningly at me wondering what on earth I was doing. So I walked in front of another young man and repeated the process: “Declare to us who your Lord and Saviour is.” He ever so humbly said, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour.” I motioned to the second respondent and said to the congregation, “This man is a Christian, but the first one isn’t.”

Amazingly, the spirit that operated through the pretender instantly lost its power and its intimidatory influence over the weaker, gullible members of the church. It was over; the church flourished.

Perhaps, in church life we encounter many less obvious cases of the people Jesus referred to in our opening passage, but we must always be aware that they exist. And perhaps, you are not in the position to test the spirits in the way I did; but the Holy Spirit can show you how to test and discern the genuine from the false, hypocritical pretenders. Let’s read again what Jesus said:

(Matthew 15:1–9 NLT) Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. … {3} Jesus replied ... {7} “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, {8} ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. {9} Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”

Jesus did not hold back in dealing with these people. His shock tactic of confronting them—“You hypocrites!”—was obviously the most loving way to help them out of their deception. Their lips deceptively “honour” Jesus, but their hearts were far from him. Ultimately, what was in their hearts in abundance would come out of their mouths in words that reveal who they really were. This led Jesus to say the following, which is right on the topic of this series of devotional studies: the law of confession; you will have what you say if it comes from the overflow of a believing heart, and if you don’t mix it with words of doubt; and the tongue is the rudder for the whole life:

(Matthew 15:10–20 NLT) Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. {11} It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” ... {14} “So ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” ... {18} “But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. {19} For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. {20} These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”

Today, I encourage you first to make sure you are not one of the ones Jesus was referring to when he said: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Let’s keep him in the centre of our hearts—along with speaking the truth to ourselves at the centre of our being.

Let’s also obey the Holy Spirit when he says: “Test the spirits, whether they are of God.” And remember to absolutely trust what the Holy Spirit also says in this context:

(1 John 4:4–6, 15 NKJV) “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. {5} They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. {6} We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. ... {15} Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

(1 John 2:26–27 TPT) “I’ve written these things about those who are attempting to lead you astray. {27} But the wonderful anointing you have received from God is so much greater than their deception and now lives in you. There’s no need for anyone to keep teaching you. His anointing teaches you all that you need to know, for it will lead you into truth, not a counterfeit. So just as the anointing has taught you, remain in him.”

If you are born again, confess that Jesus is Lord, have received his Holy Spirit, and have become a new creation in Christ; then you have the “anointing” that John is speaking of. He is guiding you into all truth (John 16:13). And in particular, he will give a clear inner witness when you are confronted with a person with the wrong spirit. They may speak smooth, captivating words, but if your spirit is jumping or grieved, if the hair on the back of your neck is standing up, so to speak, trust the greater one on the inside. Jesus said, “Ignore them.” Don’t trust them with your heart. Instead, test the spirit in love. If they are not of God evangelise them, but don’t pursue close fellowship with them and definitely don’t trust them with the inner secrets of your heart:

(Romans 16:18 NLT) Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people.

(Proverbs 26:23 NLT) Smooth words may hide a wicked heart, just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.

(Psalm 55:21 NLT) His words are as smooth as butter, but in his heart is war. His words are as soothing as lotion, but underneath are daggers!